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Carbon-14, a naturally occurring isotope of carbon in the atmosphere. After death, a living thing does not take in nutrients from the atmosphere and thus do not take in Carbon-14, thus the carbon-14 in their body start to diminish at a predictable rate. By measuring the amount of carbon-14 left in a dead matter, the time since death can be determined. Note that this method is only accurate up to 60,000 years old.

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What is carbon 13?

Carbon-13 is a stable isotope of carbon, meaning it has the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons compared to the more common isotope, carbon-12. It makes up about 1.1% of naturally occurring carbon and is often used in scientific research, such as in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study the structure of molecules.


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The study of living things is called life science or what?

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What can be classified as both a living thing and a non-living thing?

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